Utah First

Aug222014

Yesterday I joined with the Salt Lake Chamber and the Governor’s office to host the Utah Solutions Summit. This event provided a venue for Utah business leaders and government officials to come together to discuss the vast and uncertain regulatory state with which businesses are required to comply. The event was also an avenue to find solutions to government imposed burdens placed on economic development. In addition to providing information about the role of regulation and regulation compliance through panel discussions, Senator Lee facilitated industry specific roundtable discussions. In these roundtables, industry leaders discussed ways to alleviate the burdens these regulations have on their companies with a representative from Senator Lee’s office, a representative from the Governor’s office, and others.

The summit began with an opening speech by myself, and I was followed by a keynote speech given by my friend, Senator Tom Coburn. Both speeches focused on over-reach at the federal level. I compared the federal government to a “helicopter parent,” with 80,000 pages of new federal rules handed down in 2013.

After the opening speeches, there were two panel discussions: A local regulation panel consisting of city officials and business leaders, and a state regulation panel consisting of economists, business leaders, and an agency director. These panelists examined and provided insight regarding the relationship between regulation and economic development.

Lt. Governor Spencer Cox spoke to the group at lunch where he presented examples on how regulation negatively affects innovation in the economy.

In the afternoon, attendees dispersed into industry specific roundtable discussions. The goal of these roundtables was to bring together representatives of businesses and industries to discuss the regulatory burden under which they are required to comply. Participants were asked to bring their most burdensome regulations to the summit as well as potential solutions they would like to put into place to address these problems.

We held roundtable discussions on these topics

Real Estate & Commercial Construction

Banking & Finance

Technology, Entrepreneurship, & Small

Business

Healthcare, Medical Devices, &

Pharmaceuticals

Transportation

Energy, Natural Resources, & Public Lands

Mr. Wayne Crews, an expert from the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC, provided a presentation on federal regulation for those attendees that did not participate in the roundtable discussions.

I am grateful for the time set aside and the effort made by those in attendance. The ideas driven through dialogue produced important strategies to address the vast regulatory burden your business faces every day.